AMED Or CHE: Which Is The Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors interested in Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare stocks are likely familiar with Amedisys AMED and Chemed CHE. But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Amedisys and Chemed are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that AMED has an improving earnings outlook. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

Our Value category highlights undervalued companies by looking at a variety of key metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, as well as the P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that have been used by value investors for years.

AMED currently has a forward P/E ratio of 20.73, while CHE has a forward P/E of 25.41. We also note that AMED has a PEG ratio of 1.89. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. CHE currently has a PEG ratio of 2.26.

Another notable valuation metric for AMED is its P/B ratio of 2.68. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, CHE has a P/B of 7.47.

These metrics, and several others, help AMED earn a Value grade of B, while CHE has been given a Value grade of C.

AMED stands above CHE thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that AMED is the superior value option right now.

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